r/AskUK • u/Savings_Werewolf3305 • 12h ago
Would Banning Social Media help UK society?
Particularly i feel like Instagram and other social media platforms really contribute to people insecurities.
All it is- is a Boasting platform to show off and rub peoples noses in fake success.
How do you feel about this issue?
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u/Microwave-Dave 12h ago
Does that include Reddit or do we have bias special dispensation here.
Banning, no. Parenting and education, yes.
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u/butterypowered 12h ago
I think banning “the algorithm“ from sites would be better.
On social media you’d only see your friends’ content.
On here, the subreddits you subscribed to.No more unlimited targeted content on any platform. Adverts can be for products. Not to push political agenda, etc.
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u/confuzzledfather 11h ago
And content with really simple ranking based on upvotes vs downvotes over what time period I choose
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u/butterypowered 10h ago
Exactly. I’m here because it’s like the old-school forums but all in one place. Not for infinite scroll dopamine crap.
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u/Microwave-Dave 11h ago
Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with this as it fucking boils my piss, if we choose to attack it with education, those informed can make decisions about what they see, choose to believe, choose to ignore.
Not at all easy, but thats where I think it needs to start, get the foundations sorted.
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u/butterypowered 11h ago
I’d love to believe that we could educate our way out of anything, but I’ve a lifetime of seeing people reject education or think they’re ‘smarter’, usually believing conspiracy shite.
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u/No_Ring_3348 10h ago
Crazy people can't be allowed to set the standards though, that's not fair to the rest of us!
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u/Kiardras 8h ago
I walked away from FB when it was 18 algorithm posts in a row (sponsored content hurr hurr) and one post from an acquaintance, not even major friend from 7 weeks ago.
What a waste of time. Fb was good when it was my mates content.
Bring back myspace
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u/Commandopsn 3h ago
The parents of these people are too far gone. So who’s going to educate the parents?
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u/Infamous_Tough_7320 3h ago
Yeah I’d actually like if sites like YouTube went back to how they were in the early 2010s before advanced algorithms
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u/TrueBrit77 11h ago
Who exactly would you be educating and about what? People don't use these sites because they think it's good for them. I'm not saying education is bad, I just don't know what you need to tell people that they don't already know.
The problem with social media is the algorithmic bubbles, I think if we could tackle those directly it would be better than education. Like taking the cocaine out of coca cola.
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u/Ireallyamthisshallow 11h ago
This was the question I came to ask, because whenever I've seen it on other subs it invariably gets the "Reddit isn't social media" treatment.
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u/Microwave-Dave 11h ago
Gotta love the biases on the platform we use and exclude it from others. I am sure others say the same about Reddit
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u/TrueBrit77 11h ago
Of course it's social media.
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u/Ireallyamthisshallow 10h ago
You'd be amazed the amount of people who don't consider it such
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u/TrueBrit77 6h ago
Not really, there is a lot of people who think the earth is flat. Some people thinking Reddit is still the same as it was 20 years ago is alot less suprising.
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u/AnonymousTimewaster 8h ago
Any platform where its users are anonymous is not really "social" media. Forums are not social media. "Social media" is where you can easily look up your friends.
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u/AugustusReddit 4h ago
Introduce financial accountability for the harm caused (directly and indirectly) plus criminal liability for the top management. Monetary consequences usually have the desired effect on bad or unethical behaviour.
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u/koloqial 12h ago
It’s an odd one. It should be up to the parents to educate their kids, but let’s face it, for too long the rest of us have expected parents to do their job and actually parent. Some of them simply haven’t. I can see why legislators would look at pulling that lever given the current state of society.
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u/Microwave-Dave 12h ago
Instead of implementing dystopian measures in a world of evolving tech, teach those who are willing to learn and make an informed decision. Spend the money there, create jobs for those willing to help others and educate society.
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u/MarcusBlueWolf 12h ago
No. Do we really need more and more big brother style nanny state rules in place?
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u/Talon-2267 10h ago
I want the government to just come out and tell people to do one, every week theres a petition to ban something, it's not the role of government to ban things you don't personally agree with
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u/OrangeOfRetreat 9h ago
Multiple billion dollar corporations are destabilising democracy across the world. Social media content and the AI slop flowing through the algorithms is totally incompatible with the general public. Just see how badly pro Bolsonaro propaganda is spreading in Brazil right now.
I don’t see this “nanny state” actually ever banning this though . It benefits oligarchs, capital interests and totalitarians too much.
0
u/xVENUSx 9h ago
But shouldn't people be free to choose?
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u/OrangeOfRetreat 9h ago
The actual truth is being destroyed and an alternate reality is being created where verification will be almost impossible for the average person. Go on Facebook right now and you will see (almost) every person over the age of 45 being one shotted by lies and AI slop. Our brains are not able to handle things like this. It is total poison. If you decide to not use the social media, great - but that doesn’t stop the millions of people who wouldn’t as algorithms are almost scientifically perfected at creating addiction. Watch when Bolsonaro wins and then bye bye Amazon rainforest. Social media in its current form is a net negative to society.
I grew up in an era of internet that was much freer and human driven. It was an actual force for good in spreading new ideas and understanding. The consolidation of social media companies and algorithm content has totally destroyed this.
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u/51onions 3h ago
I resent that my fellow countrymen are absolutely desperate to ban things they personally don't like. It's as if it is an innate instinct within the brit to want to eliminate the freedoms of others.
And then they'll happily tell you that you're free to do whatever you want. Just so long as the things you want to do are also the things they want to do.
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u/Kelsiersdaggers 11h ago
Judging by how radicalised our parents and grandparents have become via social media, yes. Yes we do.
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u/hdhxuxufxufufiffif 12h ago
No I don't think the government should use the power of the state to limit speech and expression in order to combat insecurity and prevent boasting.
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u/Embarrassed_Length_2 12h ago
Works well in North Korea.
We can also decide what books people are allowed to read and burn the rest. (Onlh allowed books I approve of obviously)
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u/AcceptableHawk5547 12h ago
You mean like Reddit?
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u/Ashamed_Chain_1375 11h ago
But see Reddit is liberal and good and the social media of smart people like OP so it should stay
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u/marmiteyogurt 12h ago
It shouldn’t be banned on a government level, slippy slope. Parents should parent and severely restricting kid and teen access to it. Adults can just not use it/restrict their usage time with various tools at our disposal
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u/LiamoLuo 12h ago
Social media as a concept I don’t think is inherently a bad thing if we go back to how it was- sharing updates, pictures etc with groups of friends and not caring about engagement or presenting a fake life. Social media was fun then, and I still use it in that way between me and friends, but for many it’s about becoming famous and keeping up appearances.
But the addictive algorithms which use the same things gambling uses to keep people addicted is a major problem, in addition to the lack of consequences for the things said and done, as well as the impact on children. So it needs some rigour.
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u/r0bbyr0b2 12h ago edited 9h ago
It’s not social media per say, it’s the addictive parts of it.
The government could if they wanted to, next week, make it illegal for social media companies to have:
- infinite scroll
- reels/shorts and other similar short form content
- next video autoplay
- only showing half of the next video (that makes you want to click it)
- recommendation algorithms
- harmful content, especially aimed at teenagers
- MLM/ pyramid schemes (IG is drowning in these primarily targeting financial vulnerable people (usually new mums)
They could just tell the major companies like IG/FB, Snapchat, YouTube, twitter and TikTok those are the new rules for citizens in the U.K.
Break the law and get fined 5% of global turnover. If they don’t pay, issue high court writs to their U.K. offices.
The U.K. is a goldmine for these companies for advertising and they’d change their apps within a week.
Unfortunately, none of this will happen due to political pressure and lobbying/bribery.
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u/mangojuice_84 12h ago
Yes and TikTok. It’s made people vain morons
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u/DiamondL0st 12h ago
People being vain on social media existed long before tiktok
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u/mangojuice_84 11h ago
Yeah but we didn’t get to see it all the time. Now people are glued to their and see it 24/7
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u/TheTruthIsOutThere_x 10h ago
Stop using it then, simple
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u/mangojuice_84 10h ago
I stopped, people can’t, that’s the point
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u/TheTruthIsOutThere_x 9h ago
Then that's their problem, they are adults - we shouldn't baby them forever. They will learn.
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u/luckeratron 11h ago
Stick YouTube shorts and and shortform content in there please it rots brains.
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u/mangojuice_84 11h ago
Yup, no wonder people, especially kids can’t hold their attention for 10 seconds
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u/PsychedelicPistachio 11h ago
How about letting people make decisions for themselves? Why is our first instinct as a country to make something we don’t agree with illegal. It’s not guns it’s not heroin. Restricting it is restricting freedom of speech and access to information.
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u/Any-Sprinkles-766 8h ago
A handful of Americans are currently choosing what you can say and watch, and they make a profit from it. None of it is free..
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u/PsychedelicPistachio 6h ago
Oh ok yeah sure let’s just ban it then makes sense…
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u/Any-Sprinkles-766 5h ago
I am not saying it should be banned but some thing should change. The standard excuse for not changing anything is the one you used. The platforms need to be held responsible for the content.
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u/taknyos 12h ago
Banning would be a very serious step, but I definitely think we should have way better safeguarding and rules about how these apps can be designed.
Even something as simple as requiring any app with an algorithmically generated feed to also have a chronological feed (made of only people you actually follow) would go a long way.
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u/bowen7477 11h ago
I miss the days when people took responsibility and stopped blaming everything else.
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u/DiamondL0st 11h ago
Has that ever been the case..?
Before people blamed social media, they blamed TV or video games or music lyrics or just about anything else.
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u/Actionwill65 12h ago
Social Media has become such a cesspit of ragebait and people/journalists manufacturing politically polarizing content that I've not even considered how it affects people's insecurities and the whole 'fake success' thing for a very long time.
It wasn't that long ago that social media was actually fun. Think of Vine, Facebook Games and all that. Seemed much easier back then to tailor your feed to what you wanted. Nowadays, the profit comes from rage-baiting people and politics in general. In a perfect world, instead of banning social media we'd regulate how algorithms work and somehow regulate the tabloid journalists that contribute to this cesspit. In reality though, that would cause such an insane backlash and more than likely worsen things, let alone banning social media as a whole.
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u/PaulyIDS 11h ago
Adults in the uk are slowly having their freedom taken away because people won’t parent their kids. Blame anything but the parents.
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u/CeeApostropheD 12h ago
I'd be all for it in a heartbeat. Imagine being able to look forward to socialising knowing their phones aren't coming out.
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u/WikiBits17 12h ago
I'm of Generation Z and my closest and best friend is the one person who I can do this with. We both like hiking and the outdoors which further intensifies out disdain of using it when hanging out.
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u/Chris_M1991 12h ago
If used in the right way it can bring people together, like recently I’ve found out about so much grass roots live music events in my area through Instagram but at the same time I think younger generations attention spans and self esteem is being destroyed by using it so I definitely would support age restrictions on it
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u/BingeLurker 12h ago
I’m in my 30s so grew up with social media but went off it 6 months ago.
I never got TikTok but Instagram (and to an extent YouTube Shorts) have become the same time waste and the algorithm is designed to keep people on for as long as possible. My mental health has definitely improved from deleting all but my Reddit, where the algorithm is more about what you make it.
I wouldn’t ban the social networks but there definitely needs to be new regulations to avoid the continued addiction of them.
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u/Consistent-Pirate-23 12h ago
The nearest to a total ban for members of the public (i.e adults and kids) is North Korea
Have a think about that
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u/DilapidatedVessel 11h ago
Absolutely not, last thing we need amongst the many issues this country has is more state control over what we can and can't access.
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u/Cultural_Tank_6947 12h ago
No, it won't make any difference to society.
Plus practically it would just be a game of whackamole.
0
u/Sandy_Bananas 12h ago
Bizarre take. What are you basing that claim on?
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u/Cultural_Tank_6947 8h ago
You ban one platform, another will appear. You ban a certain method of sharing content, and just another will be used.
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u/beneyh 12h ago
Would really ruin my job honestly
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u/hamstertoybox 12h ago
Same. I’d be fucked.
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u/Mutedchimp 12h ago
You monetised on there?
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u/hamstertoybox 11h ago
No, but it’s how a lot of my customers find me.
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u/Mutedchimp 9h ago edited 9h ago
Thats what I hate about business nowadays. I preferred the yellow pages days
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u/Background-Falcon915 11h ago
Just switch off the algorithmic feeds and targeting. That's what drives the spiral into extremism.
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u/originallyale 10h ago
No.
Controlling what is on social media, how it’s offered to people and stopping them using addicting features would though!
I remember when Facebook, instagram etc (and MySpace haha) were just for fun and to post the odd picture to share with friends.
Now it’s an addiction to consume and post everything you need or want or see or buy…
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u/heroics-delta8s 9h ago
If you have an issue with a social media platform, just don’t use it. Once you stop using it you no longer see the drama.
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u/VivaLaRebar 5h ago
Prohibition, authoritarianism, all that kind of shit is not a good thing for society.
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u/StarlightDreamer9 12h ago
I don't think it should be banned but I think there should be more regulations around showing children on public accounts and making money advertising and I think age limits should be raised so only adults can have accounts (or at least 16+). Influencers are more of a problem than just regular people wanting to share their lives with people they know.
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u/Sandy_Bananas 12h ago
For now, undoubtedly.
Longterm: An educated populace that could think critically would mostly be immune. We’re three-five generations away from that, and making no strides in that direction
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u/slartybartfast6 11h ago
Yes, its amplifying hâte speech serving right wing bilge and the old people are buying it hook line and sinker. My dad is now a reformer based on lots of Facebook crud.
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u/agitpropagator 11h ago
You don’t need to use social media it’s totally optional. I check Reddit a few times a day and that’s the extent of my social media (except YouTube if that counts? But I don’t watch Shorts). My social life has only gotten better. Banning just means newspaper barons are richer and influential.
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u/Jonoabbo 11h ago
I just use it to keep up with what my friends have been up too and see some cool art and photography. Follow different people.
1
u/EvilRobotSteve 11h ago
Now that the genie is out of the bottle, no. I think it would ultimately cause more harm than good. Just as many people use it as a way to connect with people and get advice as those who get affected by the very real concerns addressed by OP. It's just a part of society now. For both good and ill. If someone were to be able to time travel and stop it becoming a thing in the first place though, then yes.
I know I'm just gonna sound like an old man or whatever, but I remember what life was like without it, and IMO it was better. Not just for me, but people in general seemed happier and more productive and enjoyed life more.
1
u/ProfessionalZebra384 11h ago
I think that it absolutely would, and I don’t even feel like I have any doubts.
BUT, I also don’t want to live in a country where the government COULD ban social media.
We see a lot of debate over the pond at the moment with all of these people who want to lower crime rates and a safer country, but they don’t like the solutions. They want China’s crime rates but don’t want China’s solutions.
And that’s how I feel about social media. We’d be better off without it, but the kind of government who could ban it would potentially be worse than social media!
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u/Gbrown546 11h ago
Would it? 100%. I think social media is a cancer in today’s society.
Should we? No. We live in a democracy. People should be free to choose whether to use it or not
1
u/ClevelandWomble 11h ago
Ban? Possibly not. Remove hate speech, crooked ads, self harm and the rest? Definitely.
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u/Outrageous_Editor_43 11h ago
I don't think it would as people would revert back to other forms of 'media' such as tabloids and word of mouth - both of which have the same possibilities of projecting isolated viewpoints.
I do feel that post verification, with evidence of the action/boast should be required (not just creating an account and posting trivial nonsense about how good you are.)
If there was a way to actually enforce a fact check on all posts and publication on social media and news outlets we would live in a much better world.
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u/JuneauEu 11h ago
Honestly.
This is such a hard thing, because we want to celebrate our freedoms. I want everyone to have their freedoms. I really don't want to say you can't do something.
But as people keep proving they can not be trusted with true freedom. Like we have obvious driving laws. Like. You need a license to prove you're capable of driving on a road, with other people. So you don't kill them and you..
If we look at the damage being done by the many, many, many debunked "conspiracy theories" that are well and truely around due to social media and pick just one. Such as Anti-Vaccines. Look at the damage this is causing. Diseases we had almost wiped out. Killing people. Robbing children of a future.
So on one hand, I am well and truely against banning things like social media, but on the other hand, I feel like I would fully support laws that state things like "if you are not a qualified GP or Doctor with a basic science understanding of the topic" then you can't be a health influencer.
Yes. You can comment on stuff. Yes you can even be skeptical of it. But I dont think "Karen, 6 GCSEs, No Further Education, No Relevant Professional Skills" should be allowed to post constantly about how her friends, neighbours, daughters cousin got cancer. BECAUSE OF THE COVID jab, and then go on to be a Health and Lifestyle influencer to thousands of young boys and girls. Spreading that rhetoric.
Just like we expect our teachers to be qualified.
I feel parenting, and the platforms should be responsible... but I don't want to curtail freedoms.
So as I said. It's hard.
I don't know how we make things better. At the moment it does seem quite dire and on a downward trend.
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u/Repulsive-Goal 11h ago
I think that removing bot and troll accounts (assuming that’s even possible) would be one of the biggest positive changes to social media.
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u/middleagedfatbloke 11h ago
After a long process my Instagram is just cool stuff like animal sanctuaries and assorted special interest stuff. Honesty it's great!
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u/Dragonfly-Pond-34 11h ago
You can ban one thing and people will turn to another for the same needs to be met, which is usually coping with some deep things.
We have to sort ourselves out. The argument of something being potentially harmful can and is used to propose banning alcohol, banning smoking, banning gambling. And then what’s next? People watch too much TV. Do we get a TV allowance then? A screen time allowance from the government.
We have to mature. And maturing is hard!! Really hard!
But that’s what we need. Not bans on what we haven’t learned to manage responsibly.
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u/VictimOfBass 10h ago
No. There are a lot of people that rely on social media to make a living. It's the algorithms that need curbing.
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u/TheTruthIsOutThere_x 10h ago
There's plenty of bad things in life but the answer is not to ban everything under the sun. If you don't like it or think it's bad then stop using it. It's about self control rather than having everything dicated to you by having the government banning things.
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u/Wooden-Bookkeeper473 9h ago
It depends. I like to write stories and Facebook is the only place I can post them. The white old women love them.
Social media can be used for good.
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u/Dark_Akarin 9h ago
The problem as I think some other comments have sort of covered is defining social media. Technically linked in is social media, so is Reddit, even some forums are social media in a way. I think the addictive nature of the bad ones that need to be addressed. In the case things with doom scrolling options where it just keeps showing you more stuff. There needs to be regular stop points where it asks, do you want me to load the next block of stuff?
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u/MechanicFit2686 9h ago
It probably would but I'm generally against banning things. I don't like it so I don't use it.
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u/taskkill-IM 8h ago
Probably.... I wouldn't be surprised if we would see a decrease of mental health issues across the country as well, with a ban in place
This doesn't even just apply to children either.... adults can be more addicted to social media than children... so expecting every parent to monitor their own children's access to social media when they cannot control their own, you're pissing in the wind.
The problem is banning something as such as social media is another troubling step towards an authoritarian regime.
The problem with the internet is that when it was first introduced it was kind of a free for all, there were no restrictions or legal requirements of accessing the Internet....cit was like giving everyone access to cars for the first time, but having no road laws or legal requirements for driving...
Now we're here, 30 years later and just starting to realise unfiltered access to the world isn't entirely a good thing.
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u/AirlineSevere7456 8h ago
I use social media mostly to follow my interests, books, films, rock bands etc. I have zero interest in the things people hate about social media, influencers etc. So no from me, police yourself not the other way round.
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u/Specialeyes9000 8h ago
Social media is responsible for so many bad things, and not very many good things. There's a huge correlation with mental health problems, as well as massive divisions in society, developing alongside the reach and engagement of the internet and specifically social media. However, of course you can't ban it. The government wants to ban strangling in porn and people scream about their civil liberties. They'd never ban anything on such a big scale as social media.
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u/BigGrinJesus 6h ago
Get rid of Reddit too. I know it's shit but I'm on here anyway, whatever. But I know we'd be way better off without it.
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u/Memphite 5h ago
Better individual mental health creates a massive ripple effect that lifts up the whole community. It’s something that affects everyone, myself included.
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u/mylittlemudkip 4h ago
Honestly I think it would make some of us feel lonelier. If it wasn't for social media and being able to keep up with my friends via that I wouldn't have felt okay leaving my home city and moving to my partner's when we bought a place together. I'd feel way more isolated (I find it quite hard to make new friends). But I also think it depends what you use it for. Some people follow mostly people they know, others follow influencers and people who select their posts to show a curated lifestyle. I definitely don't show "fake success" on mine, it's just "hello I'm 40 and disabled and I like books and here is a cat I saw".
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u/dontjustexists 4h ago
Am i addicted to social media. Probably yes.
However, its not the government's right to restrict access. Social media is incredibly broad in uk definition. "User to user content".
I dont believe we have specific freedom to speech in the uk in law but it is important to be able
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u/Commandopsn 3h ago
I came across a bunch of left wing Facebook groups calling for right wingers to be doxed and they doxed some 80 year old guy because he has XYZ opinion.
you know the internet has hit a new low tbh. I try stay clear of any politics on Facebook but it still shows me all sorts of crap. Like XYZ celeb stands with Palestine. And when you dig deeper they never said that. And the post is AI.
Kids watch this stuff and think it’s normal. Even parents that are too far gone. What happened to just showing me what John on my Facebook was up to this weekend as he post his life story or that Sandra recently got divorced. But instead it’s throwing shit down my throat at every corner.
Used to be AI scammers asking for donations. Erm…. I mean money with AI children. And now this.
Idk if banning socials is good. But they could ban politics idk? Or i have no idea tbh! I have no idea! At one stage it was showing me AI videos of children lay dying.. that are fantasy propaganda crap for something.
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u/Crumpets_online 12h ago
No this is a psyop, the powers that be are angry they're losing control of the narrative (hello officer)
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u/Ok-Mission-3426 12h ago
Algorithms are already and can be tweaked further to show you what you should be shown, the surveillance infrastructure behind social media knows more than it makes out. You only have the illusion of free choice. Bots and troll farms feed accounts you like and hate. The real psyop is the form itself, not using it in the first place is how you actually control the narrative ;)
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u/Crumpets_online 12h ago
I agree that algorithms can be used to push a certain narrative but it's always better to have more sources of information than fewer.
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u/Ok-Mission-3426 12h ago
Sure, I don’t disagree. The quality of the information is often as good as ‘a guy in the pub told me…’ though
I can see how it’s been used in liberatory contexts but that won’t be allowed to happen in the global north. It’s surveillance tech at core and should be treated with great suspicion as such
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u/Nuthetes 12h ago
Twitter should absolutely be banned after Elon Musk actively helped Russia kill Ukrainian civilians.
It is basically a propaganda arm of the Kremlin at this point and should be banned. Musk is clearly compromised and is using it to push to Kremlin's agenda.
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u/MistakeLowering 12h ago
Ban Instagram and Tiktok. Those will have great effects, especially for teenagers.
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